Set in the run-up to the 2004 Presidential election, this is the story of a nuclear family in the nuclear age. The Caspers are a family beset with cowardice and anxiety: Johnathan searches for a prehistoric squid, and wife Madeline tries to understand why the pigeons are getting more aggressive; their eldest daughter is a disappointed teenage revolutionary, while their youngest has become a devout Christian. But when Johnathan and Madeline separate, each family member is thrust out into the real world.